Introduction to Literary Criticism

Look at these pictures

Is this beautiful? Why/Why Not?

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt

Is this good art?

The Potato Eaters - Vincent Van Gogh

Is this art?

Postmodern Garden - Yue Minjun

Freddy Linsky

Eyes in the Heart - Jackson Pollock

Reader Response

What does the story mean to you? Which character do you relate to most? Does it matter if your opinion is different from another person’s?

Archetypal Criticism

Are there other stories that you can think of that are similar to this one? Is this story original? If not, is any story truly original?

Feminist Criticism

What are the genders of the characters in this story? What evidence is there of their genders being male or female? Does gender matter in a story?

Marxist Criticism

What might be the reason the wolf is oppressing the pigs? Is he poor? Are there other reasons two of the pigs might not be building their houses with stone?

Post-structuralism

Do you side with the wolf or the pigs? Must you side with the pigs? Can we reinterpret the story from the pig’s point of view?

Structuralism

How might the time the story was written in affect our understanding? When was the story, or film, first made? Can you guess? Does it matter when a story is written?

Formalism

Do we need more information to understand this story properly? If the story was translated, could any person in the world understand it without background information. Should we find out about the authour’s background before accepting whether the story is true or not?

• 1) get together with the people who are researching your school and study it together

• 2) prepare a PPT for it– Summary of school– Questions the school asks– Examples from familiar texts– Strengths and weaknesses

• 3) Present on Friday• 4) Thursday you will meet with a partner group

who have read the same text.

What is Literary Criticism?

• Literary Criticism asks the questions we might ask:– What is literature?– What is the meaning of a text?– Who determines the meaning of a text?– Are there different ways of understanding a

text?– Do some people consistently misinterpret

texts?